US Treasury freezes over $130 million tied to Iran-linked crypto wallets

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated multiple cryptocurrency wallets tied to Iran, resulting in the freeze of more than $130 million, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The wallets were linked to the Central Bank of Iran and were sanctioned as part of Treasury's efforts to disrupt the country's illicit financial activities, including what Bessent described as its abuse of digital assets. 

"We will continue to aggressively follow the money and deny the Iranian regime access to the proceeds of its illicit revenue schemes," Bessent said in an X post on Tuesday.

While Bessent did not specify what additional actions accompanied the designations, onchain analyst Specter said minutes before the Treasury secretary's post that Tether had frozen four Tron wallets holding a combined $131 million in USDT. 

Specter said the addresses were linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Central Bank of Iran, adding that most of the funds had been withdrawn from payment service provider DTC Pay and cryptocurrency exchange Bitso. He also said the reason for the blacklist was unknown at the time of his post.

The Block reached out to Tether for comment.

The latest action follows a series of large USDT freezes involving OFAC-sanctioned or law enforcement-linked wallets. In April, Tether said it supported the freeze of more than $344 million in USDT across two Tron addresses after U.S. authorities flagged the wallets for illicit activity.

Tether stated in April that it collaborates with more than 340 law enforcement agencies across 65 countries, has supported more than 2,300 investigations globally. The company has frozen more than $4.4 billion in assets, including more than $2.1 billion tied to U.S. authorities.